Inside the files
The roster templates when you open them
Each preview is the downloaded file with its sample data. Yellow cells are yours to change; anything in bold is a formula.
Staff roster templates for Excel
Four roster templates set up for Australia and New Zealand: a fortnightly roster with pay, a weekly roster, a monthly roster and a 2-2-3 roster on 12-hour shifts. Weeks run Monday to Sunday, times are 24-hour, dates go day first, and every file comes with sample data filled in. Just download and go, there’s nothing to sign up for.
No sign-upNo email requiredHours, overtime and payExcel · Google Sheets · LibreOffice
Fortnightly staff roster
.xlsx · ~14 KB
Two weeks from a Monday, with a Start and a Finish for every shift. Hours, overtime and pay add up automatically, and the table underneath totals each person’s fortnight.
- 24-hour times, dates day first, starting from the Monday you enter
- An unpaid break per person, deducted from every shift worked
- Overtime beyond the weekly hours you set, at your own multiplier
- Sample: a cafe with eight people and an overnight baker
Weekly staff roster
.xlsx · ~11 KB
One week, Monday to Sunday: a Start and a Finish for each shift, plus the unpaid break, hours, overtime and pay for everyone on it.
- Shifts past midnight are counted correctly
- Leave a day blank for a day off
- Hourly rates in dollars in a yellow column, ready to change
- Sample: the same cafe, first week of the fortnight
Monthly staff roster
.xlsx · ~13 KB
Five weeks from a Monday, one code per person per day: E early, M mid, L late, O off, AL annual leave, RDO rostered day off.
- Shifts and hours per person, worked out from the shift table under the grid
- Cover rows count earlies, mids and lates, and turn red below the minimum
- Sample: a shop open 8am to 9pm with eight staff
- A week of annual leave leaves four late shifts short, shown in red
2-2-3 roster on 12-hour shifts
.xlsx · ~12 KB
Four crews covering 24/7 on 12-hour shifts: two on, two off, three on. The cycle is exactly one fortnight, so every pay period looks the same.
- Crews A and B on days, C and D on nights
- A long weekend off every second weekend
- 7 shifts and 84 hours per person every fortnight
- Cover rows for days and nights, red where a crew is short
The same roster in InShift
The roster in the panel, the Excel file one click away
You set up shift types once per location, then pick one in each cell. After “Publish” the team sees the roster in the app, and anyone who still wants a spreadsheet gets one from “Print” → “Download Excel”. Screenshot from our demo organisation.
- “Week”, “Month”, “Year” and “List” views of the same roster
- Hours and pay beside each name while you build
- Copy a past week as drafts in one go
- A printout or an Excel file from “Print” on the planner
Shift types
The shift table under the grid becomes your shift types
The monthly and 2-2-3 files finish with a small table: code, start, finish, hours. InShift keeps the same table for each location as shift types, with the days they run and a colour, and you build the roster from them. A night shift past midnight needs no formula at all.
- “Add shift type”: a name, times, days and a colour
- Rules under “Premiums” for night hours and the public holiday dates you list
- Time format and first day of the week set once for the whole organisation, so 24-hour time and a Monday start
On the phone
The team checks the roster in the app
No more hunting for the latest file: once the roster is published, everyone sees their shifts in the InShift app on iPhone or Android (the tab is called “Rota”) and gets a push when one changes. Swaps and leave are requested in the same app.
- The month with your shifts and “Who else is working” on any day
- A reminder before each shift and a push for every change
- Swaps, open shifts and leave as requests the manager approves
- The roster in the phone’s calendar through one link
Roster template vs InShift
The template is still handy either way. What changes is who fills it in and who gets to see it.
Who sees the roster
- Excel roster template
- Whoever the file or photo got to
- InShift
- Everyone in the app after “Publish”, with a push about changes
The fortnight’s hours
- Excel roster template
- Formulas in a summary table
- InShift
- Counted from the published shifts for any two dates in “Payroll”
A swap
- Excel roster template
- Retype two rows and tell both people
- InShift
- A request from the app, approved in a tap
Annual leave
- Excel roster template
- An AL code typed over a shift
- InShift
- A request with dates and the days left
Cover
- Excel roster template
- A COUNTIF row you maintain
- InShift
- The “List” view shows who is on each shift, gaps included
Several sites
- Excel roster template
- A file per site
- InShift
- Every site in one panel, “All locations” on one screen
Get the whole team on one roster
Setting up shift types, the team and your first fortnight takes an evening, and you keep your spreadsheet: the panel downloads the roster as Excel too.
Which roster template to download
It comes down to one question: do your shift times change from day to day, or do you run a few fixed shifts?
If the times vary, go for a roster with a Start and a Finish in every cell: the fortnightly or the weekly one. That suits cafes, restaurants, retail with long trading hours, anywhere you need to know who’s on at half past two. Actual start and finish times are what let the file work out hours, overtime and pay.
If people work set shifts, go for a code grid: the monthly roster, or the 2-2-3 roster for a site that never closes. One letter per person per day is quicker to fill in and easier to read across a month, and the small shift table under the grid turns the letters into hours. Change the early shift from 8:00 to 7:30 in that table and every total updates.
Why a fortnightly roster
Plenty of teams in Australia and New Zealand are paid fortnightly, so the fortnight is the period the roster has to add up over. The fortnightly template sets out the two weeks as two blocks, each with its own hours and overtime, and a summary underneath with every person’s fortnight: week 1 hours, week 2 hours, the total, overtime and pay. That’s the table you need come payday.
The 2-2-3 roster fits the same rhythm. Its cycle is exactly fourteen days, so everyone works seven 12-hour shifts, 84 hours, every fortnight, and pay stays the same from one period to the next. Two on, two off, three on: starting on a Monday, the three-day block falls on Friday to Sunday, so every second weekend is a long weekend off.
A roster maker or a roster template
A template suits a roster you keep and reuse: save last fortnight’s file under a new name and edit what’s changed. To click a week together instead of typing it out, use the online roster maker: it builds a week in your browser, adds up the hours and the cost, and downloads it to Excel or prints it. Neither needs a sign-up.
What the formulas do
- Hours across midnight. A shift from 23:00 to 07:00 is eight hours. Simply subtracting gives a negative number, which is why so many roster templates get night shifts wrong. A Start without a Finish counts as nothing, so a forgotten Finish can’t add phantom hours.
- The unpaid break. Each person has one break length in minutes, deducted from every shift they work. Set it to 0 for anyone on short shifts.
- Weekly overtime. Hours beyond the number in the yellow cell count as overtime, paid at the multiplier you set next to it. In the fortnightly file each week is counted separately, and the summary adds the two together. Set both cells to whatever applies in your business.
- What the files don’t do. Rates tied to a day of the week or a date, such as weekend and public holiday rates, aren’t worked out. Add your own columns if you need them.
- Cover. Under each code grid, a row counts who’s on each shift every day and turns red below the minimum. The red comes from conditional formatting, so it updates with every edit.
- Dates from one cell. Enter the Monday the roster starts, and every day and date in the header follows. Next fortnight is just one cell to change.
Roster templates in Google Sheets
Everything is a plain formula (IF, SUM, MAX, COUNTIF, WEEKDAY) with no macros, so the files work the same in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets. For Sheets, upload the file to Google Drive and open it, or use “File” → “Import” in a new spreadsheet; the formulas and the red cover cells carry on working.
When a spreadsheet roster stops working
A spreadsheet roster works fine for one site and a small team. The signs you’ve outgrown it are easy to spot.
- Three versions doing the rounds. The roster goes out as a photo, and two swaps later nobody’s sure which one is current.
- Changes reach no one. Move a shift and the file changes, but the person only finds out if they happen to open it again.
- A sick call before opening. A file can’t ask the whole team who can come in. A manager can, one phone call at a time.
- Leave is tracked somewhere else. An email, a text, a note in the office. The roster finds out when the person doesn’t turn up.
When you get to that point, build the same fortnight in InShift’s rostering software: one button sends it to every phone through the roster app, and the hours of each published shift are already counted for pay.
Try it without an account
Three tools that need no sign-up and no email. Build a rota or add up hours right now, and move to an account when the team has to see it.